Cherry Point man charged in Internet child predator sting

A Cherry Point Marine was among eight men arrested in a year-long Internet child predator sting, authorities announced Thursday.

Pfc. Jack Eugene McHenry III, 21, of Barracks 4166 aboard Cherry Point, was charged June 19 with online enticement of a minor for the purposes of committing an illegal sex act. He is being held in the Camp Lejeune Brig with a scheduled court appearance in November.

McHenry is accused of traveling to Pender County to have sex with who he thought was a middle school-aged girl but turned out to be an undercover detective.

Another Marine, Sgt. Donald Ira Mundell, 27, of 2nd Intelligence Battalion, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, was charged June 19 with online enticement of a minor for the purposes of committing an illegal sex act. He is being held in the Camp Lejeune Brig after pleading guilty Sept. 28 to federal charges of online enticement of a minor in a separate case conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Six other men from as far as Charlotte were also charged with multiple sex crimes, including first-degree statutory sex offense, indecent liberties with a child, attempting to disseminate obscene material to a minor, solicitation by computer of a child to commit an unlawful sex act, and sexual exploitation of a minor.

The suspects are accused in warrants of manufacturing images and movie files that depict the sexual molestation of multiple children between the ages of 5 and 14 from two southeastern North Carolina counties.

The sting operation revealed the manufacture of "images and movie files depicting the sexual assault and rape of multiple children as young as infants," according to warrants.

The suspects also are accused of exposing their genitals via a Web camera and masturbating during online chat room sessions with a person they thought was a young girl but was actually Sgt. Scott Lawson with the Pender County Sheriff's Department's Special Victim's Unit.

Within minutes of logging into a chat room pretending to be a young girl, five to 10 men would try to communicate with him, Lawson said.

"Some of these suspects exposed themselves within the first few minutes of their first meeting with who they thought was a young girl," he said.

Local, state and federal authorities have teamed up under the N.C. Internet Crimes Against Children umbrella to investigate and prosecute Internet sex offenders, who often cross jurisdictional lines to commit their crimes, said George Holding, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

There are about 18,000 child sex predators in North Carolina, said Kevin West, special agent in charge of the Computer Crimes Unit of the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation. West bases his estimate on the number of unique IP addresses believed to have viewed illegal child pornography last month.

Although Lawson said there was no indication that the eight men knew each other or communicated with each other online, SBI Special Agent Hans Miller said there is evidence other sexual predators do communicate with each other online and share images and stories of their sexual encounters with their victims.

One in seven youths between the ages of 10 and 17 has received unwanted sexual solicitations online and one in three children has been exposed to sexual material on the Internet, according to a 2006 survey conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Predators stay in touch with several children at one time, "grooming" them to meet outside the child's home, authorities said.

State and federal prosecutors said Thursday that a real danger exists because children who know more about computers than their parents often think they can handle the situation.

"They try to solve the issue on their own, but they are in way over their heads," said Ben David, district attorney for the 5th Prosecutorial District, which includes Pender County.

Other individuals charged were:

Dennis Stephen Johnston, 36, of Croomsbridge Road in Burgaw, was charged Aug. 15 with two counts first-degree statutory sex offense and two counts of indecent liberties with a child. His bond was set at $1,000.000.

Adam James Bagley, 25, of Strawberry Hill Drive in Charlotte, was charged Oct. 22 with two charges of indecent liberties with a child and attempting to disseminate obscene material to a minor. His bond was set at $200,000.

Lucas Marks Letendre, 29, of Sunny Slope Road in Bear Creek (near Siler City), was charged July 21 with one count of solicitation by computer of a child to commit an unlawful sex act and 15 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. His bond was set at $500,000.

Horacio Marvin Rhice II, 18, of East Trail Drive South East in Wilson, was charged June 30 with one count of disseminating obscene material to a minor. He pleaded guilty in district court in September was sentenced to 24 hours community service, 24 months of supervised probation and $321 in fines and court costs.

William Allen Southers, 42, of White Blossom Trail in Conover, was indicted by a Pender County Grand Jury in September on two counts of indecent liberties with a child and two counts of attempting to disseminate obscene material to a minor. His bond was set at $75,000.

Jason Michael Wallace, 29, of East Taly Ho Road in Stem, was charged Oct. 16 with solicitation by computer of a child to commit an unlawful sex act, indecent liberties with a child and at-tempting to disseminate obscene material to a minor. His bond was set at $150,000.